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Turkey

The following Declaration was drafted pursuant to a symposium organized in Panlýurfa by the Human Rights Association of Panlýurfa. The symposium took place on November 22nd and 23rd 2003. We, the co-authors of this Declaration, are deeply concerned about the recent developments at the United Nations regarding the language adopted within various documents regarding women’s rights. The efforts in questioning and undermining already accepted language of the Beijing Conference and Beijing Platform for Action calls for an immediate action by women’s (human) rights defenders.

The Women's Human Rights Training Evaluation Report will serve as a useful tool for all NGOs, activists, academicians and researchers working in areas related to human rights education and social change.

Customary and religious laws and
practices are often used as tools to control women's sexuality and to maintain
the imbalance of power in sexual relations. This paper describes customary and
religious laws and beliefs, and their impact on the situation of both rural and
urban women in Eastern Turkey, based on a study among 599 women from the region,
most of whom are or have been married.

Turkey
has a secular system of government and operates nominally as a democracy. It is
currently seeking membership in the European Community (EC) and has already
become part of EC customs unity agreements. Many new laws have recently been
introduced in Turkey, including a new national health service and laws that will
increase penalties for rape and domestic violence.

Despite these
promising changes, many marginalized groups including ethnic, religious, and
sexual minorities, continue to be denied their rights.

In many ways, it is possible to say that feminism has erupted onto the Turkish political scene in
the latter half of the 1980’s. Since 1983, a number of publications and public
meetings organised by feminists have already made an impact on political and
intellectual circles in Istanbul and Ankara (cf. Tekeli 1986 and forthcoming).
The general public heard of these women on two separate occasions.